By Charles Mgbolu
The iPod swept briefly through the Nigeria market like wild fire holding sway for only a few years before succumbing to a more superior technology evolving in the iPhone.
The iPod did come before the iPhone but since the latter served the basic and only function of the former- a music player, the iPod had not been able to stand a chance.
A trip into time will give a most interesting tale. In 2001 when the drums of revolution could just be heard in the nation’s telecom sector, the iPod was being released in the US. In 2007, six years later, the iPod had crept in and entrenched itself in the Nigerian IT market. It became a regular item almost as much as fashion amongst youngsters to have a wired ear piece dangling from the ear. iPods are specially designed electronic devices capable of storing and playing compressed MP3 audio music files.
They have been termed ‘wonder boxes’ capable of storing up to 200 songs on a 1G memory and no fewer than 500 songs on a 2G. It also comes with tempting features, particularly a battery power that lasted up to fourteen hours. It looked like the ultimate music device but that wasn’t to be for long.
Already, accelerating technology on mobile phones was becoming an interesting distraction. These mobile phones were leaping through layers of metamorphoses.
First to go were the green screen lights that made cell phones look like toy devices meant for aliens. It was replaced by white lights that felt better.
Things got better for the phones especially when it got infused with radio wave receptors which for the first time ever enabled users actually able to listen to music from their favourite radio stations.
Yet developers were not satisfied. What was sought, was an all-encompassing phone gadget that could practically do everything; a wonder, in the palm of every hand.
The answer came in 2005 when phone brands like Sagem, Nokia and Motorola simultaneously hit the market with music phones that could download audio files.
In 2007, Apple dealt a further blow to the iPod, (a product that was ironically theirs) by announcing it had streamlined with new cell phone devices capable of downloading music files from its on-net jukebox easily accessible from a Mac Book or PC. It was the finisher and the iPod never recovered ever since.
Sales dropped for the iPod as iPhones razed the market like wild fire. Things got better for the phones as music tones were refined with in built speakers and balancing.
Today, the iPhone is everyone’s dream phone and has completely obliterated the iPod. It’s features are simply amazing – video camera, camera phone, text messaging, visual or voice mail, portable media player, Internet web browsing, and both Wi_Fi and 3G connectivity.
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